


He’s Come Undone

by Tangerine



Series: Release/Pulse [3]
Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1999-12-19
Updated: 1999-12-19
Packaged: 2019-05-28 01:31:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15037769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tangerine/pseuds/Tangerine
Summary: Iceman and Shatterstar take the next step in their relationship. Story set in the Release/Pulse timeline.





	He’s Come Undone

**Author's Note:**

> (Author's note 2018): I don't know. It made sense at the time. Written in late 1999, posted online for the first time in 2018. Also marks the first time I wrote anything explicit.

Bobby yawned sleepily, trying to focus unwilling eyes on the movie. The figures blurred and he was beginning to suspect it wasn’t English they spoke. He supposed he should go to bed, to admit defeat at the hands of sleep, but the arm lazily draped over his shoulder and the gentle beat of a human heart against his back was a powerful lure.

“Is this a foreign film?”

“No,” Shatterstar replied slowly, looking down at Bobby with a raised red eyebrow, his smirk synonymous with a smile. “You are tired. Do you not think it wise that you should sleep? I do not mean to keep you awake.”

“I’m fine,” Bobby assured him and turned his eyes back to the screen, watching the people move and still convinced they were babbling in French. He settled against Gaveedra and closed his eyes, thinking only to rest for a second.

He opened his eyes to his bedroom, clothes thrown over every available chair and the wall bare save for a few posters and a picture of Hank after an unfortunate incident with a comb. Throwing an arm in the general direction of time, he grabbed his clock and looked at it. Noon? He blinked. Noon. 

Unwilling to the end, he edged one leg to the floor and sat up, blinking in surprise. Pajamas, he was wearing pajamas. Hmm. He looked around the room and stood up, stretching then paused a moment, grabbing the waistband of his bottoms and taking a peek. Naked. Hmm. Goosebumps of perverse pleasure crept up his neck and he blushed fiercely, realising that Gaveedra had put him to bed. 

Bobby got dressed quickly, yanking on an old pair of blue jeans and pulling a pseudo-clean shirt down his chest. He brushed his hair with vigour then frowned when it still stuck in all directions, never quite able to agree on a style. Shave? Nah. But he did brush his teeth, the haunting voice of his dentist eternally reminding him about gingivitis. 

He skipped the idea of breakfast and seriously considered lunch before realising he was too lazy to make something himself, and since no one was in the kitchen to take pity on him and feed him, he decided to wait until dinner. 

He knew where he would go next. He walked slowly down the stairs and took his time, arriving at the danger room and tapping in his code at the door. It hissed open, welcoming him, and he stepped inside, sitting against the wall.

The music was loud, and the beat was steady, the thumping pushing his heart into his throat and exciting his blood so it raced through his ears with a roar. Shatterstar was high above him, part of an immensely complicated jungle gym erected feet above the ground, a playground for the warrior. 

Gaveedra knew the moment Bobby had come in, had heard quite clearly the sound of the door, and he glanced briefly in his direction, smiling to himself before turning his attention back on the bars. He pulled himself up with his arms, kicking his legs in the air so he flipped effortlessly and let go of the bar, grabbing hold of the one above him. Twirling around and around with the sharp rustle of long hair cutting the wind, he let go again, dropping and wrapping his fingers around the bar below him.

He flipped four times before coming to an abrupt stop, his legs pointed the ceiling and he split them, making a perfect line of long limbs. Just as quickly, he dropped and went back into the spiral flips, letting go and catching another bar. In and out, he wove his way through the gym until finally, his body crying out for rest, he dropped the floor, steadying himself with outspread fingers.

“Good morning,” Gaveedra said brightly, kissing the side of Bobby’s cheek gently as he walked past him to his towel. He mopped the sweat from his skin and grabbed his water bottle, swallowing a litre of water before speaking again. “Do you wish to train with me?”

“You mean, that’s not it?”

Shatterstar shook his head. “That was merely my warm up. Come, was it not part of the bargain that I teach you the warrior way?” Shatterstar waited for Bobby to stand, and he did almost reluctantly, inciting a half-smile from Gaveedra’s lips. “You are not properly dressed. Easily solved. I have several training suits.”

“They won’t fit me.”

“Nonsense. I’m taller than you but our girth is similar.” Bobby laughed and pressed his head to his mouth, trying desperately to stifle it. Shatterstar sighed deeply. “Is it because I said girth, isn’t it?” Bobby nodded and Shatterstar hummed before saying thoughtfully, “I understand the humour. That is encouraging. I am beginning to understand the way you think.”

“Are you analysing me again?”

“Always,” Gaveedra replied, “you fascinate me.”

“I don’t know why. I’m the epitome of normal. I’ve been accused of being too average.”

“Obviously they never looked very closely at you,” Shatterstar replied with a shrug. “Now, come train with me. Please?” Bobby nodded and followed him into the changing room, his eyes resting on the marvellously muscled back. “You are admiring me.”

Bobby blushed fiercely and nodded. “I can’t help it.”

“Oh, go back to it, I was quite enjoying the attention,” Gaveedra replied, never looking back, always so comfortable with this, with them. “I take it you appreciate the view.”

“Gav, you could be wearing a bunny suit and I’d still appreciate the view,” Bobby said quietly, mumbling it really, but sure that Gaveedra would hear him. He heard everything. “Do you want to, oh I don’t know, do something tonight ... with me?”

“Of course. What will we do?”

“Oh, I could think of a few things off the top of my head,” Bobby said lightly, counting on Gaveedra’s obliviousness not to pick up on any deeper meanings. One of these days he’d find the courage to casually suggest they move forward with this relationship, but until then, his spine was out tap-dancing. “Movie? Dinner?”

“All right,” Shatterstar replied, opening his locker and grabbing shorts. He threw them at Bobby, who barely managed to catch the black pants. Gaveedra sat on the bench and waited for him to dress, and Bobby just stood there stupidly. “It is nothing I did not see last night.”

“Yeah, well, I was too unconscious to be embarrassed,” Bobby muttered.

“There is no need for shame. You have a beautiful body. I find it very pleasing,” Gaveedra said seriously, barely even blinking, and Bobby regarded him suspiciously. “If you are comparing yours to mine, please do not. I have trained since I was a young child. If it is honesty you desire, I find nothing attractive about it. It is a weapon and very little else.”

“I like it,” Bobby muttered.

“I hoped you would. Please, Bobby, believe me when I say this to you.”

“I don’t think you have the capacity to lie,” Bobby said lightly and moved his fingers to the hem of his shirt, whipping it over his head and onto the ground. Shatterstar watched him quietly, never quite understanding the concept of modesty, and Bobby worried now that his body would get the better of him. Shatterstar, for all his doubts, was one of the most physically beautiful people he had ever seen, and Bobby just knew that if Gaveedra said anything or if his own eyes strayed from any place other than the wall his blood would redirect itself lower in his body than his brains.

“You are blushing again,” Gaveedra said with a gentle smile, his lips curling almost effortlessly though it took all he had to concentrate on breaking the sullen face he usually sported. He had learned to mimic Bobby’s grins, learning all that he could about facial expressions from a man who knew them all. “Would it help if I evened out the situation? I could redress.”

“Oh, jeez, don’t do that,” Bobby said quickly, “I couldn’t take it.”

Shatterstar thought about this, his brow furrowing in frantic understanding. “But from what the television tells me, we are supposed to see each other without clothing.” Gaveedra honestly pondered the situation before being enlightened. “You are afraid you will get an erection!”

“Oh God, you are not saying this to me.”

“Is this not normal? Or am I dysfunctional somehow?” 

“Could we stop talking about this?”

“But I thought this was normal.”

“It is. This is just the wrong place to be talking about this.”

Shatterstar looked around the locker room, studying the walls and the floor then staring directly at Bobby, who had turned an odd shade of crimson and clutched his shirt over his groin. “Then where should we talk about it?”

“Not here.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then why could it not be here?” 

“Ah!”

The cry did not sound encouraging, so Shatterstar thought for a moment that perhaps he should drop the subject, but he had been wondering about certain things, things in which he thought Bobby would initiate the conversation and never had.

“You are baffling,” Gaveedra finally said, admitting defeat. He was beginning to suspect he would never understand humans, especially this one even though so much seemed to ride on it. “I will be outside. Waiting. Bobby.”

****

“And then he leaves!” Bobby finished the story, an ice pack on his shoulder. Betsy was smiling at him, that coy grin she used when she found humour in something Bobby didn’t, and Bobby looked at her with a raised brow. “What?”

“Bobby, take what I say to heart. I think perhaps he is waiting for you to make the next move,” Betsy said gently, sitting cross-legged in front of the glass screen that kept her inside and the Shadows of the Crimson Dawn out. It was the only way she’d be safe. She had given up her freedom for the sake of her child. “The poor boy probably has no idea what is going on.”

“I don’t see why he thinks I know things.”

“No, I can’t imagine where he got that from. You have only lived on this planet for twenty-four years,” Betsy replied dryly, shaking her head in pity at his ignorance. “Bobby, I take it this relationship was a mutual agreement?”

Bobby looked are her curiously. “Yes. Of course.”

“It is not wrong to start acting like it. I know you have dated women. It is not so different once you’re dating a man. Do you understand?” Bobby nodded with a deep sigh, biting his lower lip. “Tell me, and do remain calm, have you slept together?”

“No.”

“Have you even talked about it?”

“No.”

“Do you think perhaps it’s time you should? It sounds to me that he is curious and innocent, having no idea what it is intimacy entails but very eager and willing to learn. For once in your life, Bobby, you have to be the leader and take change. He won’t do it.”

“But what if that’s not what he wants?”

“He is twenty years old. I can’t imagine him not wanting it.”

“I’ve never actually ... you know ... with a man.”

“Well, I have, and it’s not so hard,” Betsy replied with a light laugh, placing her hand on the glass, wanting so much to be able to comfort him. “Bobby, did you or did you not tell me that you are gay?”

“I am,” he said steadily.

“And did you not tell Gaveedra that you were interested in a relationship?”

“Heavily implied.” Betsy gave him a vicious look. “Yes, yes, I did.”

“So you are a gay man with a boyfriend, an alien boyfriend who until he met you was more than willing to die chaste, and you have been dating as it is for four months. Do that sound reasonable?”

“Where are you going with this?”

“The question, Bobby, is where are you going with this? You are sexually frustrating him. You are sexually frustrating me, and I’m in no way involved with this. He has questions, questions that you must answer, and I don’t care if you don’t have the answer, you owe him enough to try.”

Bobby frowned deeply, his chin resting on his palm as his fingers pulled at his face helplessly, and Betsy smiled warmly. “Bobby, my purse is in the locker. Please take it out and open it.” Bobby stood up and retrieved the purse, opening it and resting his eyes on the first object he saw. “There. Take those.”

“Huh?” A set of keys rose with his hand, and his fingers curled around them unconsciously as he blinked stupidly. Betsy laughed and shook her head, standing up and shifting Emily to her other arm. “What? You want me to seduce him some seedy ...”

“Bobby. Those are the keys to my loft in London. Ask yourself why I would have keys to a seedy motel in my purse, hmm?” Betsy regarded him oddly, using facial expressions he couldn’t decipher. “Bobby, you’re making this far more complicated than it needs to be.”

“This is important to me.”

“Which is why you should stop running around in circles and attempt to pick a direction instead. I think you are worried about nothing. Bobby, Gaveedra has no expectations up to which you must live. Stop thinking he does.”

Bobby sighed and nodded, watching Betsy as she walked out of the room. 

She made it seem so easy.

****

Casual but decent looking. Shatterstar stared at his closet, blinking. Casual meant comfortable, and decent looking, well, he looked decent in anything he wore. He grabbed a beige pair of cargo pants and put them on, looking at himself in the mirror. Very decent.

He pulled on a white sweater, long-sleeved and form fitting then slapped his watch around his wrist, his right wrist because he was actually left-handed. He thought about this, trying to recall if that was the rule or not. There were so many, and he feared it would take much longer than he had to learn them all.

He braided his hair quickly, tying it securely with a strap of leather, and he glanced at himself in the mirror again, grabbing the image inducer and switching it to active mode. The dark star around his eye vanished and the swords became invisible, secured away in their leather sack. 

He looked almost human.

And he was half human, though in the grande scope of things that hardy mattered. He had been born and raised in Mojoverse, and until he had arrived on Earth, he had assumed it was little more than a fairy tale. The female carrier of his genes had been a human, but it had never seemed real to him. The only outward clues that he was not purely of Mojoverse genes were his hands, which held five digits instead of four. It had made sword-fighting difficult.

How far he had come, Gaveedra realised suddenly, and how far he had yet to go. There was a time when all that had mattered were his swords and the justice that could be done with them. Now, he thought, his swords were a secondary concern. 

There was a knock on the door, and Gaveedra grabbed his coat, opening the door to Bobby’s smiling face. 

“Hello.”

“Hello.”

“About ready to go?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

****

“Steak, rare, with a baked potato, a coke, large,” Shatterstar listed mechanically, scanning the menu. Times like this, he preferred the slop he had been raised on. There had involved no decision. It was slop. “Caesar salad, none of that fake bacon. That is all.”

“And you?” The waitress turned to Bobby, trying to fight the urge to stare at them and giggle. The tall one was absolutely gorgeous, if not a bit strange, but it was obvious the men were together, and she just found it adorable.

“Same as him but a beer instead of a coke and the fake bacon,” Bobby said quietly, and she smiled, waiting for his identification. He sighed and slapped his driver’s license on the table. She examined it before nodding, disappearing to that void where waitresses went. “I always get carded.”

“I do not know why. You have very old eyes,” Gaveedra replied simply with a shrug, looking around the crowded restaurant. Bobby followed his eyes, looking where he did. “Odd. I have never really noticed human mating patterns before. You are right. We are different.”

Bobby nodded. “You know, I was thinking about telling my parents. About us.”

“Oh.” Realising he was actually surprised, Gaveedra turned back to Bobby, fixing his silver eyes on the Iceman, who smiled meekly and rearranged his utensils in abstract forms. “Did you not say your father would ‘roast you alive?’”

“Oh, I’m sure he will, but I was thinking, I mean, I’m not going to change, so maybe he should just deal with it.” Bobby unfolded his napkin and beat into his lap, smoothing until it was flat. “I think my mom would be happy.”

“I would like to meet your mother,” Gaveedra said, an assuring smile passing over his lips, and he wished that he could grab Bobby’s hand, but he had been warned about what was proper in public and what would bring violence. “I think I have missed out on the parental aspect of my life. I was grown in a tube until I was deemed ready to begin the warrior’s training. I emerged as a young boy.”

“Our lives have been totally different,” Bobby said seriously, looking straight at that sullen face. Shatterstar had moved his eyes beyond him, staring at something behind his back, and Bobby took the moment to stare at him. He looked so much younger without the tattoo over his eyes. He looked his age. “Do you miss home?”

Gaveedra nodded slightly. “Sometimes. It is not like it is here. There I fit in, and I did not have this struggle to always understand, to get all these things you take for granted. People admired me for my courage and bravery. Here they mock it, saying I do not think before I rush into battle or, worse yet, that I do not care for my teammates.”

“If it means anything, I admire it.” Bobby laughed lightly, shaking his head in self-pity. “The Slacker and the Go Getter, it’s almost funny if you think about it. I think we cancel each other out somehow.”

Gaveedra smiled gently, they grey eyes falling to the table. “It is much better now that you are in my life.”

“And I get these urges to accomplish things. Go figure, huh?”

Dinner picked that moment to arrive, and they ate in silence, enjoying the food. Bobby attempted to immerse himself in the meal, to forget about the beautiful, young man sitting across from him. It is not so much that he wanted to forget but that he was afraid to admit that he was also scared. It could all be ruined so easily and that terrified him.

Bobby couldn’t remember just how he got to be outside, but Gaveedra was looking at him quietly, his hands pushed deeply into the pockets of his leather coat. It was chilly outside, fall rapidly turning into winter. 

“You want to skip the movie?”

“All right,” Shatterstar said, always so willing to follow blindly, and Bobby nodded, walking slowly. Gaveedra kept the pace easily, looking around him at the classy buildings. “We do not have architecture like this back home, or perhaps we do and I just never saw it. I did not see many places on that planet. I was always too busy.”

“Fighting?”

“Being a slave,” Shatterstar replied abruptly, shivering in the cold night. Mojoverse was renowned for warm, aired climates, and it was not until he came to earth that he discovered snow and sub-zero temperatures. “I was not free on my planet, not until I fought my way out of the games and into the rebellion.”

Bobby regarded him sadly and wished he knew the right and proper thing to say. Instead, he settled on silence then a quick move to take his hand, the most daring act on his behalf since announcing he was gay. In public, where people could see, he took his boyfriend’s fingers and twined them with his own.

“I thought that ...”

“Between us, we’ll kick anyone’s asses, all right?” Bobby said with a shy smile. They continued walking, and Bobby thought that if Gaveedra hadn’t been holding onto him he might have floated away. “I have a place where we can go, if you want.”

“Then let us,” Gaveedra replied quietly, trusting Bobby completely. 

Bobby led them to Betsy’s loft, struggling to recall Betsy’s instruction, but he found it will little difficulty, letting them into the building before climbing the flight of stairs to the spacious apartment. He fumbled slightly with his keys before jabbing them into the knob, opening the door and feeling the wall for a light switch. 

Gaveedra stepped into the large hallway and looked around approvingly, removing his coat and hanging it by the door. Bobby had disappeared into the kitchen so he sat upon the couch, crossing his hands on his lap and wondering where it was they were.

Meanwhile, Bobby had entered the kitchen in search for something to drink and found a bottle of champagne cooling, a box of condoms, another box of – ack! – lubricant and a note that read: “We don’t know where you’ve been. The Champagne is for you. CALM DOWN. PS. Remember to breathe. Betsy.”

“How does she do that? Trapped in a box, she still manages to get people to do her dirty work,” Bobby muttered, a vicious blush creeping up his neck. He grabbed the items and brought everything to the living room, not even glancing at the boxes, which he slid under several magazines. “Thirsty?”

Gaveedra smiled as Bobby poured him a glass of wine.

“Hey, wait, aren’t you a minor?” Bobby asked with a teasing grin, holding out the slender glass.

“Not if I was in Canada,” Gaveedra replied seriously, taking the glass and sipping it slowly. Bobby sat next to him on the couch, putting the bottle on the coffee table then gulping half of his glass. “Who owns this place?”

“Warren, or Betsy, one or the other, it’s complicated,” Bobby said, sitting back and kicking off his shoes. Removing his socks, he wriggled his toes, admiring the soft lushness of the carpet. He didn’t even want to think how much money Warren had paid for it. “You said you had questions. I can, um, answer them, if you want me to answer them.”

“So this is the proper place?”

“Yes,” Bobby replied, nodding his head woodenly. Oh God! “What did you want to know?”

Gaveedra sipped the champagne thoughtfully. “I am ... well read of the subject of this planet’s sexual ... practices. But I am very much,” he furrowed his brow to search for the best word, “innocent. This ... hardness is normal, yes?”

Bobby nodded his head. “Yeah, it is.”

“Is there something I am supposed to do with it? I have heard so many conflicting things,” Gaveedra admitted quietly. “And Julio was no help. I embarrassed him, and he changed the subject, but the more I read, the more confused I became.”

Bobby tried to mask his surprised. This was something he’d always taken for granted, just assuming that every male spent a fair portion of their teenager years masturbating. He had at any rate, so he wasn’t what that sure said about him. “You mean you’ve never ... touched yourself?”

“Am I supposed to?” Gaveedra asked with trouble eyes, looking honestly and completely perplexed. His skin felt oddly hot, and he suspected this is what embarrassment entailed. “It was not until recently that this state became common for me.”

“Hey,” Bobby said tenderly, “then that just means you’ve missed some of the most awkward years of you life. I mean, I still jump to life if a sexy person walks by, and well, when I think of you, I mean, wow, you know?”

“Really?”

“Oh god, yes,” Bobby said with a rushed breath, “like now.”

“Now?” Gaveedra grinned at him with a naive smile, reaching out to grab Bobby’s trembling fingers. “Me too.”

Bobby bit his lip and shifted on the couch, putting his glass on the table. The big question. “Do you want to,” Bobby swallowed the lump in his throat, “maybe,” he always needed a maybe, “to ...do ... stuff?”

Gaveedra looked at him curiously, that beautiful mouth shifting into an inquisitive smirk.

“To make love,” Bobby continued shakily, “with me.”

“Make love?” Gaveedra repeated slowly. “You and I?”

“Unless you have some one better,” Bobby replied with a light smile, holding Gaveedra’s hand tighter with his, so turned on he thought he would explode if he even dared to move. “Gaveedra, if this is too quick for you, tell me now and I’ll back away.”

“I only wish that you would come closer,” Gaveedra said with a nervous smile, waiting for Bobby to instruct him, to lead him, to show him what it meant. He realised now Bobby had planned this somehow, and he smiled, a feathery excitement in the pit of his belly. It almost eclipsed the fear. Almost.

Bobby stood up and dimmed the lights, using the moon’s reflection as the only illumination through the large windows. With his foot, he pushed the coffee table to the side and kneeled on the lush carpet. Gaveedra kneeled across from him, watching and waiting.

Bobby took off his shirt quickly and tossed it to the couch, resisting every urge to bring his arms over his slender chest. Gaveedra did the same, revealing a wonderfully toned and hairless chest. His skin was dark with the sun’s touch, and it contrasted marvellously against the soft pale of Bobby’s flesh.

Next went the pants and briefs, gathered in a cluttered group on the white chesterfield, and Bobby raised his eyes to meet Gaveedra’s innocent look, the silver eyes oddly cautious and reserved, excited yet frightened. 

“Are you okay?”

Gaveedra nodded shyly, in love with Bobby’s slight but athletic body, his own body immensely inflamed by the sight of the Iceman’s arousal. “I ... did not think it would be such a wondrous sight.”

“I know,” Bobby whispered, his eyes drifting down the hard length of his body. 

Bobby rose on his legs and moved to him, laying his hand over the heart of the man. A touch first to the place that mattered most, and Gaveedra brought his fingers to his hand, twining them together. Bobby kissed the corner of that stoic mouth, catching his lower lip between his teeth. The warrior shifted his head, deepening the kiss, taking and giving until Bobby clutched him tightly, bringing their bodies together in sudden need.

Hot sparks of pleasure coursing through his body, Gaveedra grasped at the small body, his mouth resting on the slim neck to muffle the sounds, burying his face so Bobby wouldn’t see the fear and make him admit it, and he was afraid. Not of the Iceman but of himself, of this body he was in and the strangeness it felt. 

Bobby felt him freeze, felt the stiffness of muscles, and pulled back slightly, to look at the face and kiss it again. Bobby couldn’t claim to be a sensitive man, but he could tell when someone was scared shitless. “Tell me what you feel.”

“I feel ... odd,” he gasped as Bobby’s hand pressed against the small of his back, fingertips gently teasing his skin. Bobby pulled the leather from his hair, untwisting the braid and combing his fingers through the thick mane. “I am not ... in control. I cannot keep it ...”

“Then let it go,” Bobby murmured, “this isn’t about control.”

“But I ...” Shatterstar thrust his head back as Bobby ran his palms over his chest, his thumbs over his nipples. The move freed his neck and the lips of the Iceman came against his throat, kissing the skin, sucking and stirring the fury in Gaveedra’s virgin body. “I am afraid. Without control I am ...”

“Human,” Bobby mouthed quietly, clutching the handsome face in his hands and staring into the pale eyes with as much sincerity and care he could muster. “It makes you human, Gaveedra. I ask you to trust me.”

“I do.”

Bobby kissed him again, lightly on the lips, lingering before speaking again. “I won’t let you lose control. It’s yours for as long as you need it. Know that, please, Gaveedra. Nothing will happen that you don’t allow. Okay?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll stop.”

“There is no need to stop.”

“I know what terror looks like, Gav.” Gaveedra bowed his head, but Bobby moved with him, never breaking the connection of the silver and blue eyes. “Touch me instead, learn about my body first and see what it means.”

Gaveedra put his hand on Bobby’s stomach, unmoving for a very long time, but Bobby made no sound, he just waited. Slowly, Gaveedra’s fingers slid across his muscles, testing the hardness, stroking and rubbing. “Can I ... there?”

“It’s for you,” Bobby replied, watching his partner’s face as the hand drifted lower, the naive fingers burying themselves in the dark bush of hair before he felt the hand touch him right where it counted. Bobby groaned suddenly, not quite prepared for what it would feel like when he really wanted to be touched, when he yearned for it. With women, it had been the great performance of his life, but with men, with Gaveedra, his passion was head for head with his desire and lust.

“Am I doing it properly?” Gaveedra asked suddenly, watching Bobby’s jaw drop and his mouth gape open, strange sounds escaping his cold lips. Bobby nodded but took the hand away, kissing his palm. “What did I do wrong?”

“I want to give you pleasure first, let you feel what I just did. Will you let me, Gaveedra?” Bobby moved his hands across the broad shoulders, Shatterstar’s skin already damp with musky sweat, and Gaveedra nodded his reply, kissing his lover gently to assuage his worries.

“Then sit back,” Bobby whispered breathlessly, the sweet taste still on his lips, and Gaveedra complied, reclining to the soft, plush carpet. Bobby let his eyes roam over the long body, so tightly woven with muscles, so wonderfully smooth. “And let me give you this.”

“Okay.”

Bobby felt his heart jump into his throat, and he pushed it back to his chest, bowing to the golden body and pressing his lips to the strong chest. He tasted of salt and sweat, precisely how Bobby had imagined, and he kissed again, running his hand down the side of Gaveedra’s body. The warrior stiffened slightly but said nothing, just watched with wide eyes.

Bobby dragged his lips along Gaveedra’s flesh, his breathing catching in his throat, and Betsy’s words came back to him. Breathe. The taste of another body, of this body, was unlike anything he had ever tasted before. The body beneath him was still, his chest rising and falling with calm breathes, and Bobby looked at Gaveedra, watching the expression.

“Can I touch you?” 

Gaveedra nodded mutely, watching him as the Iceman lay his fingers against him, and he twisted his head, his fingers digging into the carpet. Bobby tightened the grip, firm but gentle, stroking the length of him, teasing the warrior’s erection with deft fingers.

Shatterstar fit perfectly in his grasp, and it felt so right Bobby began to think this was only a cruel dream, but the lurch of the body beneath him as he ran his thumb over the head suggested otherwise. His body ached to have more, to give more, to give all he could to his lover. 

“Oh,” Gaveedra gasped in surprise as Bobby took him in his mouth, gentle lips against sensitive flesh, kissing parts of him that he thought would never work. The cold fingers splayed on his stomach, holding him still, and Gaveedra inhaled again, a sound escaping his lips that frightened him. “I ... feel ...”

“What do you feel?”

Gaveedra choked on his words. “I feel ...”

“Let it come,” Bobby murmured, “it’s nothing to fear.”

“I can’t,” Gaveedra whispered, bringing his hands to his face, and Bobby was against him, soft arms wrapped around his body. Gaveedra curled around him, his face pressed against the cold flesh, clutching at something he knew, something he understood.

“It’s not so terrible,” Bobby said gently, pushing the hair from his troubled face and seeing how young and small Gaveedra seemed at that very moment. “We don’t have to do this now, not if it scares you this much.”

“It is not the touching.” Gaveedra tried to turn his face from Bobby’s view, but the icy fingers held him there, forcing their eyes to meet. “It is this feeling ... in my loins ... and it is unknown to me. I cannot lose control.”

“Why not?”

“I do not know what will happen if I do,” Gaveedra confessed, a strange warmth in his eyes, and he blinked slowly, his words catching on his tongue and afraid to say what he really meant, “and it is not going away. Bobby, I cannot lose control.”

Bobby spoke softly. “This is what will happen. You will feel that feeling in you and you will feel it grow until you think you cannot bear it. In an instant your body will tighten and you’ll feel this sense of release, complete and overwhelming, and the heavens will shatter and spew forth stars. In that moment, when your body is totally not your own, you will feel things that you thought were impossible.”

“But if my body is not my body, whose is it?”

“Mine,” Bobby murmured, laying his thumb atop the smooth star, kissing the parted mouth gently. “If you’re not ready for this, tell me and it stops. This physicality isn’t what’s important. This bond we have, this love we have, is.”

“Love?” Gaveedra blinked again, his words leaving his mouth weakly and his eyes hot with ... tears? He put his fingers to his cheeks and felt the dampness, felt the cool lips of Bobby take the tears away. “You love me?”

“I love you,” Bobby repeated. “That’s all that matters to me.”

So this was love, he realised happily, he had suspected as much when he discovered the joy he felt from seeing Bobby smile and hearing him laugh or the trouble he felt when watching his face grow sad and feeling his own heart break in time. “Let us try again. Please.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Gaveedra smiled, taking the Iceman’s cool hands in his grasp. “But in me.”

“In you?”

“In me, like I have read about,” Gaveedra said bravely, nodding his head when Bobby looked skeptical, and the Iceman reached back to grab two boxes. Gaveedra smiled shyly and waited for Bobby to prepare, watching the fumbling hands and glad that he was not the only one who was nervous. If had been anyone else, they would have thought less of him. With Bobby, he found only understanding. 

“I’ve never done this, Gav. You tell me if this feels wrong, all right?” Gaveedra nodded, holding out his arms to the smaller man, and their bodies met again, limbs twining together as their lips met with passion, with need and want and a desire so vast the earth seemed to shake. “Focus on me and nothing else, Gav, okay?”

“I will.”

Gaveedra looked at Bobby as he came into his body, slowly and carefully, with all the love he could muster, and he put his fingers against the soft swell of the Iceman’s jaw, relaxing his body completely to let his body fill with his lover’s erection, the only part of him that was hot to the touch. 

Gaveedra closed his eyes as Bobby lay against him, his face resting on the warrior’s chest for a minute until the world stopped spinning. Bobby took Shatterstar’s hands and held them half-arched over their bodies as they kissed deeply, slowly moving together.

As the movements became more frantic, Bobby felt for the reaction of the body beneath him, careful of his new lover and his fear, and Gaveedra clung to him with every thrust, eyes closed tightly and mouth begging to be kissed. Bobby pressed his lips against Gaveedra’s face, the fire in his body ignited beyond control, and he felt pleasure in a way he though he never would, as something real, something whole, something he could understand. 

They wove together into one creature, their bodies moving in tune as if this was all they had ever sought, and Gaveedra tightened, the feeling stronger than ever. Bobby felt the flinch and held him tighter, watching the silver eyes open in awe. With one last thrust, Gaveedra cried out, bringing Bobby with him, and the heat of his desire spilled on his chest.

Bobby held him, riding the last waves of pleasure out with him before pulling out, lying next to the warrior and laying his head on the powerful chest to hear the heartbeat throb. Gaveedra never let go of his hand, and it wasn’t until sleep was nigh that he spoke again.

“And I love you.”


End file.
